THE

ENUMA ANU ENLIL

A PANORAMIC VIEW

by Rumen Kolev
May 2007, Varna, Bulgaria

Cuneiform texts: Above: The forward to EAE in Sumerian.

Below: K2330, the 57th tablet of EAE (still untranslated)
 THE ENUMA ANU ENLIL

What is known widely as 'Enuma Anu Enlil' (EAE) is in short the

bible for the Babylonian sky-priest. It is a vast collection of omina- around
7000 of them, ordered in 70 tablets. There are also few tablets with astro-
nomical information included. Its real title in Akkadian, as with all other
babylonian works, comes from the first words in its very beginning, that are:

UD AN EN.LIL2... "the day when (gods) An, Enlil..."

The beginnings of this collection is certainly in Sumerian times i.e.
at least 2300 BC- the time of Sargon the Great, but the tradition of observ-
ing the sky and collecting omina surely is much older and goes into prehis-
tory...
Until today (2007 year), only 30% of the 70 tablets of EAE has been
translated ! And there are even tablets whose content is still either unknown or
uncertain 1 !
Here I will attempt to make a concise report on the matter that may
help for future research and provide guidelines for the student desiring to delve
further in the topic. I want to give here a panoramic view of the entire EAE.
To have this view, we have to know:
1. Where are kept the 70 tablets that make the EAE and which are they (what
are their museum numbers...);
2. Which are the catalogues of the EAE tablets- modern and ancient;
3. What is translated, by whom and where;
4. Where are published (on paper) the original cuneiform texts of EAE;
5. Who of the scholars did research the EAE and where did they publish their
results. Here are meant not only translations, but also overall research on
the organization of the series EAE, its catalogues, different recensions,
tablets, astronomical meaning et cetera.
WHERE ARE THE TABLETS ?
The tablets are thousands and are in the museums in Europe, Turkey,
Iraq, the USA and of course in some splendid private collections all over...
Many of the tablets are not even in the EAE catalogues and so, no-one
knows what is their content. They just linger in heavy museum boxes... This is
especially true for places that do not belong to the 'well-organised' societies.
Such places are Turkey (The Istanbul museums) and Iraq.

1: According to D. Brown the tablet with unknown contents is tablet number

57 and those with uncertain content are tablets 66 to 70. See David Brown,
'Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology', Styx, Groningen, Netherlands,
2000, Appendix I, note (21) EAE, page 254
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 THE MODERN CATALOGUES
There are special catalogues- catalogues of EAE tablets or catalogues of
astrological tablets where are given the exact museum numbers of the tablets in
question. The numbers are also provided in the available translations (of parts of
EAE) and in other studies related to the organization and content of EAE.
As I said, not all EAE tablets have been recognized as such and so they
have not been included in these special catalogues.
Here are several catalogues of use for reconstruction of the EAE:

1. E. Reiner: "Celestial Omen Tablets and Fragments in the British

Museum", Cuneiform Monographs 10, Groningen 1998, pages 215-302.
2. The catalogue present in the Virolleaud's edition of EAE.
3. The catalogue of Craig's Astrological-Astronomical Texts in the
British Museum
4. Weidner E. in his "Die Astrologische Serie EAE", AfO vol. 14, 17, 22,
gives detailed descriptions of all extant tablets representing the EAE 1-50
tablets.

THE ANCIENT CATALOGUES

There are also ancient catalogues- written in cuneiform on clay tablets
that are peers of the EAE tablets themselves. These were lists containing the
numbers of the tablet and their first lines which served as the 'name' of the tablet in
question. For example:
3rd Tablet of EAE: Sin ina tamarti shu aga apir
(The Moon has a crown when appearing (for the first time)
I am aware of 2 ancient catalogues that were used and published by Weidner:

1. The Assur catalogue 1: VAT 9438 + 10324

2. The Uruk catalogue: VAT 7814 + AO 6470

These though are only partly preserved and their use is very limited. The
Assur one has entries for tablets 39 to 60 but for the most only the last syllable of
the 'name' of the tablet remains. The Uruk catalogue has much better preserved
entires for tablets 1 to 26.

1: See also J. Fincke, "Der Assur Katalog...", Orientalia NS 70 (2001), pages

19-39
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 THE MODERN TRANSLATIONS
OF THE EAE
As I said, only one third of the series has been translated and published
in modern languages. I will enumerate here all translations known to me:

1: F. Rochberg-Halton, "Aspects of Babylnian Celestial Divination", AfO,

BeiHeft 22 (ABCD).
Translation of tablets 15 to 22.
Lunar Eclipse Omens.

2: W. H. van Soldt , "Solar Omens of Enuma Anu Enlil...", Netherlands, 1995.

Translations of tablets 24 to 30.
Non-eclipse solar omens.

3: E. Reiner & D. Pingree, "Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part Two...",

Bibliotheca Mesopotamica, Undena Publications, Malibu, 1981
Translations of tablets 50 and 51.
Star omens.

4: R. Largement, "Contribution a l'Etude des Astres errants dans

l'Astrologie chaldeene", ZA (Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie) 52, p. 235-
256.
Translation of tablet 56.
Planetary Omens.

5: E. Reiner & D. Pingree, "Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part Three...",

Styx Publications, Groningen, 1998
Translation of tablets 59 to 62.
Venus omens.

6: E. Reiner & D. Pingree, "Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part One...",

Bibliotheca Mesopotamica, Undena Publications, Malibu, 1975
Translation of tablet 63.
The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa. Venus omens.

This makes 23 tablets tranlated (out of 70).

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 THE ORIGINAL CUNEIFORM TEXTS
OF THE EAE TABLETS
I view this as the most important of all. Often the translations can be
wrong and misleading. The originals cannot...

1: Ch. Virolleaud , LAstrologie Chaldeenne (=ACh.) , 1908-12,

Paris

2: J. A. Craig, Astrological-Astronomical Texts in the British

Museum, Leipzig, 1899

3: Bezold, Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik

collection of the British Museum, London, 1891-99.

4: The 56th and parts of other tablets can be found also in Thureau-
Dangin, Tablettes dUruk, Paris, 1922

THE VIROLLEAUD'S EDITION

OF THE ENUMA ANU ENLIL
ACh
The LAstrologie Chaldeenne published by the French scholar
Virolleaud remains after 100 years (!) the best and most comprehensive
book available on EAE. It contains 14 fasciculli ordered in 4 topics:
SIN, SHAMASH, ADAD and ISHTAR. These are in two versions: in
cuneiform and in transliteration- i.e. in Latin letters. No translations...
The SIN has texts dedicated to the Moon; SHAMASH to the Sun;
ADAD to the weather god Adad and ISHTAR to Venus, the other planets
and the stars. Virolleaud mentions all the tablets he has used.
The work has two additions which were published later called
Supplement I and Supplement II. These likewise were divided in 4 sections,
each one coming in 2 versions: cuneiform and in Latin letters.
The work contains not only EAE tablets, but many commentaries on
EAE and other astrological omina texts. Many of the 70 EAE tablets,
however, are not included. Most of the texts, can be found also in Craig.
The texts in Craig are given only in cuneiform and they are exact
copies of the original tablets. Virolleaud has often made combination of sev-
eral tablets and parts of tablets in order to produce the text of a single tablet.
To compare, please look in the article 'Sargon the Great and his Omen' in this
same bulletin where on page 14 is given the omen text found in Virolleaud and
on page 15 is given the source-tablet as autographed by Craig.

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 Because Virolleaud does not give the precise outlines of the tablets,
it is not possible to guess how many lines are missing in the lacunae.
Another thing is also that Virolleaud gives the texts only in standard
Neo-Assyrian script even in cases when he used tablets in Old-Babylonian.
He also did not include the colophones (the remarks in the end or
on the edge of a tablet giving the name of the priest making the copy, the
year and other information).
Whatever his shortcomings, Virolleaud is still unsurpassed...
The tablets of EAE which can be found in the Ishtar section of
Virolleaud are:
Ishtar 10 = EAE 38
Ishtar 15 = EAE 53 ?
Ishtar 20 = EAE 56
Ishtar 21 = EAE 55
Ishtar 23 = EAE 57
Ishtar 26 = EAE 51
Ishtar 30 = Comments on EAE 69 & EAE 70
Ishtar 37 = EAE 63
Ishtar 38 = EAE 55 ?
I Sup. Ishtar 36 = Comments on EAE 61
These are attested from tablets with preserved endings where
usually is written the number of the tablet and also the series it belongs to.
There are, however, many texts based on tablets with no endings
preserved and so it remains unknown what is their number and whether they
belonged to EAE, to some commentary to EAE or to some extra-EAE omen
series...

THE MODERN RESEARCH

The most valuable research of EAE belongs to Weidner and was

published in the 14th, 17th and 22th volumes of the Archive fuer
OrientForschung (AfO) as "Die Astrologische Serie EAE" spanning years
1941-1969.
He identified and made a detailed description of the tablets 1 to 50, but
unfortunately he did not write about the tablets 50 to 70.

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 OTHER ANCIENT WORKS
RELATED TO ENUMA ANU ENLIL
RIKIS GIRRI EAE
(Fitting together [rikis] of the 'path'/'series' [gerrum] EAE)
This was excerpts from EAE, comprising the most important omens in
the same order as in the EAE. Rikis girri was organized in a small series of
tablets itself. How many were these tablets is unknown to me, maybe 15.
Other excerpts existed that were from one or more EAE tablets and dealt
with a specific topic ('liqtu'- akkadian).
MUKALLIMTU
(A Commentary [of EAE])
The commentaries could be on one or more tablets and they explained
the astronomical part of the omens, identified the many code-words or did some
other ellucidations. Comments like that can be found also in the original EAE
tablets. Look at page 10 of this bulletin in the article for Ibbi-Sin, where an omen in
tablet 55 (Ach. Ishtar 21) is analyzed. Explanations of the meaning of the astro-
nomical part of the omen (the protasis) is found in the same tablet.
SATU
(A Linguistic Commentary [of EAE])
These are commentaries on meaning and pronunciation of signs and
words.
SUMMA SIN INA TAMARTI-SU
If the Moon at its appearance
(A Full Commentary [of EAE])
This was a full, astronomical and linguistic, commentary on the EAE.
Its name 'If the Moon at its appearance' is the first line of its first tablet, but it
contained comments on all EAE tablets and not just on the Lunar omens. Only 3
tablets of this commentary have been found so far- Tablet 1 is in Ach. Sin 3;
Tablet 2 is published in cuneiform by Borger (bibliog.14) and Tablet 4 is in Ach.
Suppl. II, Sin 19. Unknown to me is how many tablets did this series comprise.
See Koch-Westenholz (bibliography 15)
AHU TABLETS
'Strange/extraneous/supplementary' Tablets
(Another, separate series of astrological omens)
In fact the 'Ahu' series is another collection of astral omens- just like the
EAE. It contained 29 tablets and was as respected as the EAE itself. A number of
omens from the 'Ahu' series has been incorporated in the EAE as is evident from
Ach. Ishtar 23 (EAE 57) saying in the end that it contained 39 'ahu' omens.

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 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION
OF THE 70 TABLETS OF THE EAE
Here I will order and give the contents of all EAE tablets according to
the Babylon recension. It is accepted that there have been 2 or 3 variants
(recensions) of the EAE, some of them comprising only 68 tablets.
I am doing this combining information from the already mentioned
works by Weidner, Hunger, Pingree, Reiner, Koch-Westenholz and especially
D. Brown. The places where I step on my own research of the original
cuneiform texts are the descriptions in italic of tablets 55, 56, 57, 69 and 70.
After the author in brackets you will find his work. E.g. (b.3) means
that the work in question is listed in the end of this article as number 3 in the
bibliography.
The Introduction to EAE : Translations available in
(opening lines of tablet 1) Koch-Westenholz (b.1) and D. Brown (b.2)

1-13 Not translated. Moon Omens. Visibilities of the Moon.

Related articles: Weidner (b.3), Koch-Westenholz (b.1),
Al-Rawi and George (b.4).
Article on a literary commentary on tablet 8: Hunger (b.5).

14 Translated. Ideal scheme of the lunar visibility.

Translation /+: comments Kugler (b.6), Al-Rawi (b.4)

15-22 Translated. Lunar eclipse omens.

Translation: Rochberg (b.7).

24-30 Translated. Non-eclipse solar omens.

Translation: van Soldt (b.8)

30-40 Not translated.Solar eclipse omens. Tablet 38 = Ach, Isht. 10

40-49 Not translated. Adad (Weather) omens.

50-51 Translated. Star omens. Tablet 51 = Ach, Isht. 26

Translation: BPO2 (b.9)

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52- Not translated. Omens with the constellation IKU (Field).

53- Not translated. Omens with the constellation MUL-MUL

(Pleiades). Tablet 53 = Ach, Isht. 15

54- Not translated. Omens with Mars, Mercury, Saturn and the the
constellations Scorpius and Fish.

55 MUL
Not translated. Omens with SHUDUN (Jupiter)
Tablet 55 = Ach, Isht. 21

56 Translated. Tablet 56 = Ach, Isht. 20

Omens with LU.BAD (Planet) Translation: Largement (b.10)

57 Not translated. Omens with constellations (most probably

representing planets). Aribu, Nashru, kakkab E-a
Tablet 57 = Ach, Isht. 23
58 Not translated. Venus omens.

59-62 Translated. Venus omens.

Comments on Tablet 61 = I Supp. Ach, Isht. 36
Translation: 59-60: BPO3 Group C, (b.11);
61: BPO3 Group A, (b.11);.
63 Translated. Venus omens. The Ammizaduga Tablet.
Translation: Langdon (b.12), BPO1 (b.13)
Tablet 63 = Ach, Isht. 37

64-65 Not translated. Jupiter omens.

66-68 Not translated. Possibly omens for conjunctions of planets and

planets with stars.

69 Not translated. Omens for conjunctions of planets and planets

with stars. Comments on Tablet 69 = Ach, Isht. 30

70 Not translated. Omens for conjunctions of planets and planets

with stars. Comments on Tablet 70 = Ach, Isht. 30

23
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1: Koch-Westenholz (1995) Mesopotamian Astrology, Museum Tusculanum

Press, Copenhagen, page 77.
2: David Brown (2000) 'Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology',
Styx, Groningen, Netherlands, Appendix I, note (21) EAE, page 255
3: E. Weidner (1912) 'Zur Babylonischen Astronomie', Babyloniaca 6 8f, 65f,
134f;
4: Al-Rawi F.H., Hunger H. and George A.R. (1991/1992) 'Enuma Anu Enlil
XIV....', AfO 38/9, 52-73.
5: Hunger H.(1995) 'Ein Kommentar zu Mond-Omina', Fs. von Soden 105-
118.
6: Kugler F. X.(1907-1914), Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel', (SSB),
Muenster.
7: F. Rochberg-Halton (1989) "Aspects of Babylnian Celestial Divination", AfO,
BeiHeft 22 (ABCD).
8: W. H. van Soldt (1995) "Solar Omens of Enuma Anu Enlil...", Netherlands.
9: E. Reiner & D. Pingree (1981) "Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part Two...",
Bibliotheca Mesopotamica. BPO2
10: Largement R. (1957), "Contubution a l'Etude des Astres errants dans
l'Astrologie chaldeenne", ZA 52, 235-266
11: E. Reiner & D. Pingree (1998) "Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part Two...",
Styx Publications, Groningen, BPO3
12: Langdon S., Fotheringham J.K., Schoch Carl (1928), "The Venus Tablets of
Ammizaduga", Oxford University Press, London.
13: E. Reiner & D. Pingree (1975), "Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part One...
The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa", Bibliotheca Mesopotamica, BPO1
14: Borger R. (1973), "KeilSchriftTexte Verschiedenen Inhalts" Fs. Boehl 38-
55
15: Koch-Westenholz (1999) The Astrological Commentary Shumma Sin ina
Tamatrishu Tablet 1, Res Orientales 12 149-64.
16: Ch. Virolleaud (1908-12) , LAstrologie Chaldeenne (=ACh.), Paris
17: J. A. Craig (1899), Astrological-Astronomical Texts in the British
Museum, Leipzig
18: H.C.Rawlinson (1870), Miscellaneous Inscriptions of Assyria, London